Local music: V-Day shows

Fresh off flummoxing Skully’s with their boisterous hybrid of old-time fun-time music at Alive’s Bands to Watch showcase, The DewDroppers reconvene Friday at 400 West Rich for the sequel to last summer’s Sadie Hawkins shindig. Besides launching the crowd into the kind of convulsions not seen since the advent of The Twist, they’ll celebrate a new digital EP, raunchily recorded by This Is My Suitcase’s Joe Camerlengo. Fellow Bands to Watch alums Way Yes, now regulars on major music blogs like Stereogum, will kick off the party with new material. If the dance partners don’t make you swoon, at least the music will.

No one knows broken hearts better than Stephin Merritt, and never do brokenhearted people take the liberty to moan about it like on Valentine’s Day. So kudos to the team of local musicians behind Infinite Exes, a tribute to Merritt’s brilliantly maudlin chamber pop ensemble The Magnetic Fields. Smart Girls, The DewDroppers’ Counterfeit Madison (girl stays busy), and Time and Temperature will pave the way for the main event. The event description on Facebook offers these succinct and appropriate instructions: “Grab a gin and tonic, smoke a clove, and reconcile your inner hopeless romantic and existential cynic for a night.”

Not so much a tribute to My Bloody Valentine as a celebration of shoegaze in general, Saturday’s convergence of noise and melody matches local bands Love Culture, The Receiver and Wolf Ram Heart with NYC’s Dead Leaf Echo, Austin’s Bloody Knives and Chicago-via-Columbus combo Loyal Divide. Even aside from the obvious “Valentine” linkage, it’s a great gimmick; few sounds approximate the emotions of love and sex like loud guitars and soft cooing filtered through seven heavens’ worth of echo and distortion. Also on tap: DJ sets from Scott Niemet, Lydia Beatz and Walleye plus free black flowers at the door.